Occam's Razor
by flairina
Summary: Lila arrived at school, and everyone immediately fell in line with her. Falsehood after falsehood flew from her lips, and they ate them up without a second thought. It didn't make sense. It was wildly out of character. In fact... it almost makes one wonder...
1. The Long Con

Marinette sighed for what felt like the fiftieth time today as she tried, once again, to actually focus on her classwork.

...it wasn't working very well. The complete absence of anyone at her side was doing a spectacular job of reminding her what was wrong: Lila Rossi, liar extraordinaire, had come back to school this morning and promptly twisted all of Marinette's classmates around her little finger again. Not only had she convinced them to completely rearrange the seating chart in order to accommodate her supposed "hearing disability", she'd gotten them to banish Marinette to the very back of the room in the process. No one had even thought to so much as ask Marinette if she would mind, including Alya, the one person in the class that Marinette had thought would always have her back.

As if that wasn't upsetting enough on its own, it was incredibly obvious that Lila's "tinnitus" was a complete lie, given the absolute nonsense story she'd concocted to explain it. As if Jagged Stone would ever keep something so tame as a housecat for a pet. Unfortunately, no one seemed to agree with Marinette in that regard, and Lila's faux-apologeticness about the trouble she was causing had successfully managed to make Marinette look like the bad guy, turning almost all her classmates against her within the span of a minute. Even…

Marinette felt her heart pang in her chest. Even Adrien, who knew full well that Lila had lied to his face at least twice before, hadn't bothered to confront her on the obvious falsehood. He probably just didn't want to make a fuss, and it wasn't as though he owed it to her or anything, but that didn't stop it from hurting all the same.

Unable to stop herself, Marinette looked up and tried not to glare as she zeroed in on Lila, currently sitting less than three feet from Adrien up at the front of the room. Alya still seemed to think the reason for her animosity towards Lila was that she was just jealous of the other girl for trying to date her crush, and Marinette could even admit to herself that maybe, just maybe, her supposed best friend wasn't entirely wrong. However, that didn't mean _she_ was wrong either. Marinette had seen with her own eyes that Lila lived and breathed deception, and watching everyone else dance to the other girl's tune like this was nearly enough to make her skin crawl.

As if sensing the gaze on the back of her head, Lila twisted around in her seat and glanced up at Marinette, smiling maliciously as their eyes met. Turning back to Adrien, she said something to him that Marinette couldn't make out from where she was, then placed her hand on his shoulder in a far-too-familiar way — something she'd done at least five separate times within the past half hour.

Marinette bristled, a few choice words threatening to bubble up past her throat. Swallowing them back down, she forced herself to take a few deep breaths, allowing her frustration to return to a mere simmer. Even Miss Bustier seemed to buy Lila's every word, so it wouldn't do her any good to say anything right now. She'd probably just end up in trouble for interrupting class, or something along those lines.

Looking back down at her tablet, Marinette realized she'd completely missed the last few minutes of the lecture, and sighed again. Honestly, now that her initial anger from this morning had passed, she mostly just felt hurt... as well as more than a little _confused_, truth be told. She just couldn't understand it — how had everyone fallen so completely for Lila's act? Half the things the girl claimed should have been incredibly simple to disprove, and the remaining half Lila clearly had no proof whatsoever to back up. By all rights, her credibility should have crumpled like tissue paper the moment someone confronted her on her lies… except, that wasn't what had happened. Instead, when Marinette tried to point out the flaws in Lila's stories, she was either rebuffed or utterly ignored, and the class was still practically fawning over Lila like the royalty she kept claiming to know. It was actually getting to the point that Marinette honestly couldn't help but be reminded of-

Marinette blinked. Wait a minute... no, that wasn't even possible. It couldn't be.

…could it?

* * *

She got her chance once lunchtime came around. Lila had apparently decided to eat at the school cafeteria today, so of course the vast majority of the class had decided to do the exact same thing, trailing along after the deceitful girl like a group of ducklings. Not that Marinette had any room to talk, since she'd followed Lila there as well. The absurd stray thought she'd had earlier simply refused to leave her mind, and some even less rational part of her was insistent that she investigate it.

"Oh no, I forgot!" Lila loudly proclaimed as she entered the large room. "I sprained my left wrist while competing in a tennis championship last week! I don't know how I'm going to get food for myself like this..."

Marinette's eyes narrowed as her classmates immediately sprang into action, grabbing first helpings of everything available and delivering them to Lila without any further prompting, not even getting any food for themselves. They stood at attention by Lila's side, obviously eager to please her; to _serve_ her. That ridiculous theory was seeming more and more plausible by the second...

"Man, it must be tough to take notes with a sprained wrist." Alya said from behind Marinette, startling her from her thoughts. "Maybe someone should take them for her until that heals."

"Isn't Lila _right-handed_?" Marinette pointed out. "You should know, she was sitting right in front of you this morning."

"Yeah, I saw her using it, but I think that might have just been because her dominant hand is injured." Alya replied. "I'll bring it up with the teachers when we get back to class."

Marinette's suspicions plunged into overdrive. Even with everything Alya had said before in Lila's defense, this took the cake. Her best friend simply could not be this ignorant. That did it — somehow, some way, the idea that wouldn't stop circling her brain _had_ to be correct, no matter how little sense it made. In which case, something needed to be done, and it needed to be done ASAP.

"Come sit with the rest of us Marinette." Alya said as Marinette looked around for a good table from which to spy on Lila. "You've got to get over your problem with Lila eventually."

"Yeah dude," Nino added as he walked up next to them, "I'm pretty sure you two could be good friends if you just tried."

Marinette almost refused the offer out of hand, but stopped herself just as she opened her mouth to do so. Taking into account what she was thinking, the best place for her to actually do something about Lila was… probably right next to her, wasn't it?

"Alright..." Marinette said, forcing the word out from between her lips.

"Thatta girl!" Alya said with a wide grin. Nino nodded beside her, smiling as well.

Steeling herself, Marinette followed her friends over to Lila's table. She had to stay calm. This was a battle, and she'd faced way worse than Lila before. If she could just keep that in mind, she'd be fine.

Alya and Nino cheerfully greeted Lila as Marinette sat down, setting her lunch tray in front of her. Her presence immediately drew everyone's attention however, and all other conversation halted as Lila turned to face her.

"Marinette?" Lila said questioningly, raising an eyebrow. "You're sitting here too?"

"…yeah, I guess I am." Marinette slowly replied.

She couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be the only one other than Lila to have actually taken a seat thus far. Everyone else was just standing around, like attendants waiting to be called upon.

"Is that a problem?" she asked.

"Of _course_ it's not a problem." Lila said with dubious sincerity. "Though I do feel like I have to ask, why the sudden change of heart? I mean, this morning I… couldn't help but get the feeling that you don't like me very much..."

Lila looked away with a face so exaggeratedly sad that it wouldn't have looked out of place at a funeral, and the others all immediately gained sympathetic expressions, several of them turning to Marinette with judging eyes. Suddenly put on the spot, Marinette had little choice but to try and explain herself.

"I was just thinking that... maybe I haven't been completely fair to you, Lila." Marinette said evasively. "That there might be… things I hadn't really considered about you when we first met. Alya and Nino keep telling me we should get along though, and everyone _else _seems to like you. So… maybe we could start fresh?"

Lila raised her other eyebrow, then smiled widely, making sure to turn her head so everyone around her could see it. "Oh wow! I am _so _glad to hear you say that Marinette! I'd hate to leave you thinking poorly of me just because of a bad first impression."

Marinette nodded idly, not actually paying any attention to Lila's words as her eyes rapidly darted around the other girl's person. Where _was_ it? She'd been so sure just a minute ago, but nothing really seemed to be standing out the way she'd expected. Was she just crazy…?

"I mean, to tell you the truth?" Lila said, leaning forward. "I actually really admire you, Marinette. I mean, just look at you: class president, up-and-coming fashion designer, artist of Jagged Stone's latest album cover..."

Lila's eyes narrowed, her smile shifting into a smirk as she placed one hand over her heart. "And you did it all despite coming from _such_ humble origins. I mean, if my parents were just a couple of bakers, I doubt I'd have been able to accomplish nearly as much as you have!"

The insult in the guise of a compliment would have normally left Marinette seething, but at the moment she was too otherwise focused on the twin bundles of hair framing Lila's face, which had swung forward slightly and caught her eye when the other girl leaned over. The hairband that bound the right bundle was a lurid orange, about as bright as the color could reasonably get.

…the remaining hairband was a dark, nearly-black shade of purple. A shade that Marinette happened to recognize quite well.

Without warning, Marinette darted forward and grabbed the small band, slipping it off of Lila's hair before quickly backing away.

"Wha- HEY!" Lila yelled, standing up with fury written across her face.

"Did Marinette just steal Lila's hairband?" Rose asked, raising her hands to her mouth in shock.

"She did!" Kim confirmed. "What the hell Marinette?!"

"Completely uncool!" Nino said.

"Give that _back_, Dupain-Cheng!" Lila demanded through clenched teeth. "Don't you DARE do anything to-!"

Marinette took the hairband between both hands and pulled with all her strength. Lila screeched in rage and lunged forward, but the thin material of the band quickly gave way, the elastic snapping in half...

...and a small black butterfly fluttered out of the remains.

The furious cries of Marinette's classmates were abruptly replaced by a chorus of shocked gasps. A triumphant smile crossed Marinette's face as vindication swept through her... just a moment before it was replaced by utter panic. She hadn't thought about what to do past this point; she couldn't transform in front everyone, but she couldn't just let the akuma escape-!

Frantically looking around, Marinette grabbed a small plastic bowl from a nearby table. Turning it upside down, she swung it down at the akuma as it tried to flutter away, catching the butterfly inside before forcing the bowl to the floor. Thank goodness the cafeteria was serving soup today...

Lila fell to her knees, a wave of roiling darkness passing over her body. When it passed, the other girl looked no different, but it was still quite clear to everyone what had just happened.

"Wait wait wait, Lila was… an akuma?" Alya said, sounding almost dazed. "But wasn't she- when did-?"

"Dude, how long has she been like that?" Nino asked. "...and… why did I only just realize how _off _some of that stuff she said sounds...?"

"Now that you mention it, didn't she say she was in a tennis championship last week?" Juleka added in a low voice. "But earlier she said she hasn't played sports since her grandfather broke his ankle competing in the Olympics..."

"It doesn't matter right now." Mylene spoke up. "Lila's still our classmate, and she's probably feeling pretty confused... I know I was, after being de-akumatized. Max, could you help me get her up?"

Max startled slightly at being addressed, then nodded. Bending down, the two of them helped Lila back to her feet.

"You okay there Lila?" Kim asked, placing a steadying hand on her back.

"Yes...?" Lila said uncertainly, her expression one of utter bewilderment. "What's...?"

Marinette attempted to quietly creep away so she could find a place to transform, but before she could make it more than a few feet, Alya whirled around to face her.

"Girl, wait a second! How did you figure out that-"

The bowl on the ground abruptly shuddered, causing everyone near it to recoil backwards. In a flash, Marinette grabbed up her lunch tray and slammed it on top of the makeshift prison to weigh it down, quickly letting go before the butterfly within attempted to possess her through the bowl.

"Nobody touch that!" Marinette warned, rapidly backing away from the still-dangerous object. "I'm gonna go, ah... get help, or something!"

Marinette turned around and ran for the cafeteria entrance before Alya could hold her up any further. As she sprinted away, she heard Lila speaking to her classmates in an extremely confused voice.

"I'm sorry, but... what's going on? Where am I? Who _are_ all of you...?"

Marinette caught one last sentence before she finally ran out of hearing range.

"...why are you all calling me _Lila..._?"

* * *

AN: If it wasn't clear, the idea is that "Lila" (or more likely "Lie-la" going by Hawkmoth's naming conventions) has been akumatized since the very first time she showed up at school, with the power to make everyone believe pretty much anything she says without question, barring directly contradictory evidence. She gains people's trust with this until they're basically her servants in all but name, sort of like a much more subtle Princess Fragrance. Can Hawkmoth actually akumatize someone long-term like this, while still sending out other akuma in the interim? Probably not. Did that stop me from writing this anyways? Not in the slightest.

This is just a oneshot, but I actually had a lot more thoughts about this scenario. If this little snippet goes over well, I think I might make a longer, more plot-driven version where a few things are different, and the issue isn't _quite_ this easily resolved.

(EDIT: After an enormous influx of support, I have decided I am DEFINITELY making that longer version/"sequel". Expect to see the first chapter of that up soon!)


	2. The Aftermath

_-Three days later-_

Marinette walked into the classroom, holding back a yawn as she did so. For once, she'd gotten to school relatively early — so much so that most of the class, Adrien included, hadn't even arrived yet. Nino and Alya were present though, happily chatting away at their desks, and so Marinette smiled as she sat down next to the two of them.

"Morning Alya, morning Nino." she greeted.

"Hey girl!" Alya returned. "Rare to see you here before the teacher gets in. Parents drag you out of bed this morning?"

"No," Marinette retorted, neglecting to mention that it was actually Tikki who'd done it today, "and I'll have you know, I'm usually up in plenty of time! I just tend to get... distracted on my way here."

"Oh?" Alya teased. "By what? Mooning over the Wall of Adrien?"

Marinette blushed, and Nino grinned. "Nah, if I know Marinette, she probably just gets sidetracked doing random good deeds for everyone. You know, helping little old ladies cross the street and such."

"Yep, that's me." Marinette said, replacing her blush with a small, secret smile. "Too busy helping people and saving kittens to make it to school on time."

Nino chuckled. "You mean like Jagged Stone's?"

Alya let out a loud groan and laid her head in her arms. "Ugh, _please_ don't remind me of that this early in the morning. I'm tired of feeling like a moron."

Nino reached up and patted his girlfriend on the back. "Don't single yourself out Al. We were all kinda morons together, remember?"

"Yeah, but I was the one sticking up for Liela when she wasn't even here." Alya argued, pushing herself back up. "Even now I can't believe some of the things I said in her defense… sorry again, Marinette."

"Same here." Nino said shamefacedly.

Marinette shook her head. "Don't worry about it you guys. You can't blame yourself for falling victim to an akuma's power... Liela got to pretty much everyone, after all."

It had been easy to forgive her friends, knowing now that it truly hadn't been their fault. Marinette honestly blamed herself for not seeing it sooner, especially given that the akuma's name had made it so obvious. Lila? _Lie_-la? Whose power revolved around lying? The connection with the other less-than-creative names Hawkmoth had given his akumas in the past seemed incredibly obvious in hindsight.

"You know, I still don't get why _you_ weren't affected." Alya said, a curious tone to her voice. "Any ideas, girl?"

"Gotta admit, I kinda want to know too." Nino added.

Marinette shifted in her seat, feeling slightly guilty.

"I just… one of the things Liela said was something I knew for a fact was wrong." Marinette haltingly replied. "It HAD to be wrong, which meant that Liela had to be lying. And I guess once I knew that, her power just… didn't work on me anymore?"

Alya quirked an eyebrow and opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, the door to the classroom opened again. The trio collectively turned to see a familiar girl walk in, her schoolbag cradled in front of her as if to shield her from the rest of the world.

"Oh, uh- morning, Vera." Nino said.

The girl flinched, clutching her bag even tighter to her chest and quickly shuffling up the stairs to her seat. Marinette bit her lip as she silently watched on, unsure of what to say.

Following the resolution of the incident on Monday, it had rapidly become apparent that Liela, real name "Vera", was not even remotely similar to her akumatized self in anything beyond appearance — in fact, their personalities seemed to be almost complete inverses of each other. Conceptually, Marinette would have imagined that to be a good thing, but seeing it in person over the last few days, it actually just made her rather concerned. Sure, Vera wasn't a conniving, secretly two-faced akuma anymore, but whereas Liela had possessed a fairly unshakable confidence and self-assuredness, Vera seemed almost cripplingly shy, always keeping her head down and her voice low. She gave off a strong impression of being scared of everyone around her, as if she thought they were about to pounce on her at any given moment.

Granted, most of the school actually _was_ still somewhat wary of Vera. No previous akuma had lasted nearly so long as Liela had, nor been even remotely as subtle, a combination that was altogether rather unnerving even multiple days after the fact. However, with virtually every member of Marinette's class having been akumatized themselves at one point or another, no one in it really held Vera's actions as Liela against her to any great degree — even Marinette found it difficult to stay angry at someone who literally hadn't been in control of herself. Several of them had even tried to reach out to Vera in fact, trying to include her and let it be known that there were no hard feelings, but Vera had proved either unable or unwilling to talk with them, merely flinching or cringing away from anyone that tried.

The door opened again, and Marinette lost her train of thought as Adrien walked into the classroom.

"Good morning everyone." he politely greeted them as he sat down next to Nino.

"Morning dude." / "Hey there Sunshine." Nino and Alya spoke at the same time.

"Good looking Adrien- I mean, good morning, Adrien!" Marinette fumbled out, her face burning. Could she seriously not get _two words_ out around him without screwing them up?

Adrien was thankfully kind enough not to point out the verbal slip, allowing it pass by without mention. "Looks like I'm the last one here today." he noted. "Did I miss anything?"

"Oh, just me continuing to beat myself up over the whole Liela thing." Alya said with a small sigh. "I'm still really annoyed that I never suspected _anything_."

Adrien gave her a sympathetic smile. "You shouldn't be." he said, expression turning slightly tense as he continued. "I mean, it's not like anyone knew Hawkmoth could make more than one akuma at a time until now."

Marinette privately agreed. Frankly, the revelation that Hawkmoth had apparently been deliberately underselling his own abilities was the most concerning part about all this... though, the fact that Liela had been a completely non-combat based akuma was nearly as much so, especially since it was still unclear what Hawkmoth's actual plan for her had been. Tikki had theorized multiple potential reasons for Liela's existence — that she'd been meant as an experiment for Hawkmoth to see how long he could keep a second akuma active, that she was being kept in reserve to be used as a tool in larger plans, even that she'd been meant to intentionally get herself in trouble at an akuma attack, then snatch the miraculous of the hero who saved her before they realized anything was wrong — but it was impossible to truly know, now. Regardless of the true reason however, the fact that Hawkmoth was even capable of such a subtle strategy suggested much more tactical intelligence than Marinette would have expected from the man who had once akumatized a literal baby. Apparently Heroes' Day hadn't necessarily been a one-off thing after all, and that had her worried more than anything Liela could have done to her personally.

The subject soon dropped, and before too long class began. The day proceeded as normal — the normal Marinette had come to know before Liela had arrived — and all was well.

...for the next three hours, at least.

* * *

As soon as the bell rang sounding the beginning of the lunch break, about half of the students made haste for the door, obviously wanting to make the most of their free time. Not having made any specific plans for lunch herself, Marinette was not one of them, nor were Alya or Nino. Adrien sadly said goodbye to the three of them as he left to meet his bodyguard at the front of the school, leaving the trio to discuss amongst themselves where they should go to eat.

"Maybe we should try out that fancy new place down the street?" Alya proposed as they walked out the door.

"I'm pretty sure it would take more time to get food there than we have available, Alya." Marinette pointed out.

"I don't think my wallet could take it either." Nino said. "Have you seen their prices? They're-"

"I'm just saying, there's no way a tiny girl like you could ever beat me at something like _that_!"

The sudden loud statement from behind them caused the trio to turn back towards the classroom, where a slightly larger group consisting of Kim, Max, Ivan, Nathaniel, and Alix was following them out the door. The former and latter appeared to currently be in the midst of an argument, which was unfortunately not a particularly uncommon sight.

"Will you just shut up?" Alix retorted. "Muscles don't equate to stomach capacity, Kim! I could _totally_ beat you in an eating contest!"

Marinette stifled a laugh. Really? This was what they were fighting about today?

"Then I dare you to face me in one in the school cafeteria!" Kim proclaimed. "Right here, right now!"

"You're on!"

"And just to make it interesting, we each have to do 10 push-ups and sit ups between each plate!"

"Doesn't change a thing, meathead!"

Max cleared his throat. "Alix, taking into account your admittedly considerably smaller mass when compared to Kim, I must caution you that-"

"Can it Max, this is between me and him!" Alix snapped.

Marinette couldn't help but smile at the pair even as she sighed at their antics. She often wondered if she should blame Kim more for constantly posing these ridiculous challenges, or Alix for always so readily accepting them, despite her numerous protests of how much they annoyed her. Maybe one day the two of them would grow up a little, but today was clearly not that day... then again, Marinette supposed it was part of the two's charm. She'd probably miss it if they stopped entirely.

"Well, guess that settles where I'm getting lunch then." Alya commented with a small smirk. "No way I'm missing out on the free show. You comin' Nino?"

Nino thought about it for a second before replying. "Sure, I wouldn't mind seeing this. Don't count on me having much of an appetite by the end of it though."

"Count me in too." Marinette added, rolling her eyes. "Someone's got to make sure those two don't accidentally choke themselves."

As she spoke, the classroom door suddenly creaked back open, slowly enough that the five-man group still standing in front of it didn't immediately notice. A figure with their head lowered darted out, seemingly trying to slip around the unintentional blockade without being spotted, but in the process of scooting around Ivan, they ended up running directly into Kim instead. The figure tumbled to the ground from the impact, revealing itself to be Vera.

All conversation stopped as everyone's attention suddenly flickered to the fallen girl, who quickly scrambled back to her feet, looking up at the rest of them with fearful eyes. Kim seemed at a loss for words for a moment, before his expression abruptly brightened, as though he'd suddenly had an idea.

"Ah, hey! Lila, do you wanna come watch-"

Kim seemed to realize his mistake almost the instant he said it, but it was too late — Vera looked as though she'd just been slapped. Before anyone could say anything else, she spun around and fled, sprinting down the nearby staircase so quickly it was a wonder she didn't trip.

"...smooth move, Kim." Alix sarcastically remarked.

"I didn't mean to call her that." Kim muttered. "I just... forgot that wasn't really her name for a sec…"

Marinette turned to look in the direction Vera had run off in, spotting the door of the downstairs' girls restroom just before it swung closed. As Kim announced that he'd give Vera some space for now and apologize after lunch, Marinette made a decision.

"…hey, you guys go on ahead." she said, turning back to Alya and Nino as the others left for the cafeteria.

Alya raised an eyebrow, having evidently noticed Marinette's previous line of sight. "Oh? You sure?"

"Yeah." Marinette affirmed, nodding at the two of them. "I'll catch up with you in a bit."

Alya shrugged. "Alright then. Catch ya later girl."

With that, she spun around and began walking off, pulling Nino along with her by the arm. "Come on babe, that means you and I are on choke patrol."

"Lucky us..."

As their voices faded into the distance, Marinette turned and marched down the stairs into the school courtyard. Crossing the area to reach the girls' restroom, she took a brief moment to prepare herself, then slowly opened the door and walked inside.

The room at first appeared to be completely empty. All of the sinks were vacant, and no feet could be seen beneath any of the stall doors. However, tiny sniffles could be heard emanating from the leftmost cubicle, betraying the presence of their source.

"Vera?" Marinette hesitantly called out.

The sniffles paused as she heard the other girl's breath hitch.

"…Marinette?" came Vera's voice, barely loud enough to hear even in the otherwise silent room. "...go away…"

"I can't..." Marinette started, before shaking her head and stating more firmly, "I won't. I'm worried about you."

"Worried I'm going to get akumatized again, you mean..."

The idea hadn't even so much as crossed Marinette's mind. She took a moment to internally berate herself, since it probably should have, but at least it meant her next statement was honest.

"I wasn't thinking that," she replied, "and I'm not going to just leave you here like this when you're obviously upset. If I can, please, let me help."

"...why…?" Vera asked, her strained tone signaling obvious doubt. "Why would you want to help me... from what I know, out of everyone in the class, everyone in the school, you probably have the most reason to hate me..." She paused, taking in a loud, shuddering breath of air. "...and I wouldn't even blame you if you did. Please, just leave me alone... there's noth-_ing you can say to make this better_..."

Vera's voice broke midway through her sentence, and the sniffling returned, accompanied now by small, choked-sounding sobs. Now more concerned than ever, Marinette took a moment to consider her options before responding.

"…okay," she said gently, "I won't say anything. But… no one should have to deal with their problems all alone. Do you mind if I just sit here and keep you company? I won't talk, I promise. But if you feel like talking… I'll listen."

Vera didn't reply. Taking the absence of an immediate refusal as a good sign, Marinette moved to the left wall and sat down on the floor, making herself as comfortable as she reasonably could.

Several quiet minutes went by. Marinette found herself thankful that the cleaning staff were so thorough at this school as she stared idly at the room's tile flooring. She was probably going to miss lunch... she might even end up being late getting back to class, in fact. Though, that happened so often anymore that the teachers practically expected it. This was more important anyways.

The stall door suddenly swung open. Marinette startled from her relaxed position and looked to her left, finding a pair of watery, red-rimmed eyes staring straight at her.

"So you are still here..." Vera murmured.

Marinette nodded. Vera looked away, but didn't close the door again.

Another two minutes later, Marinette found herself privately wondering if someone was directing people away from this restroom, as the fact that no one had yet disturbed them honestly seemed a little odd. Just as she was starting to wonder if she wasn't doing more harm than good in staying here however, Vera slowly stood up and walked out of the stall she'd sequestered herself in. Instead of simply leaving as Marinette half-expected, she sat down on the floor as well, wrapping her arms around her legs as she did so.

A second passed, and Marinette settled in for yet another period of utter silence. In the very next moment however, Vera unexpectedly broke it instead.

"My parents are diplomats." Vera spoke, suddenly enough that Marinette almost missed it. "I don't know if you knew that... akuma me probably said they were famous or something, but that's what they really are."

That was one of the only things that Vera as Liela _had_ told the truth about, actually. Probably because it had given her carte blanche to make up all sorts of tales about knowing foreign famous people, but she'd at least been honest in that regard.

"We have to move pretty often for their work, so I've had to switch schools a lot." Vera shakily continued. "It's... rarely a good experience. I never know anyone, so I usually don't manage to make any friends before I have to leave again. It's even worse when I have to transfer in halfway through the year — everyone has their groups already, and I'm just the weird foreign girl that no one knows, and probably won't be around in a few months anyways."

Marinette nodded, able to relate to a somewhat surprising degree. She'd lived in Paris all her life, but she was no stranger to loneliness. Before Alya had shown up — before she'd been given the ladybug miraculous — she'd always been too timid to really talk all that much to others, but a combination of those and other factors had pushed her to be more outgoing in recent years. As a result, Marinette probably had more friends nowadays than she'd literally ever had before.

"The morning that it… you know… happened... I was really dreading coming here." Vera said, sounding as though she'd like to stop, but was forcing herself to keep talking. "The last time I was at a French school, I barely knew any French, which made it even harder to adjust than usual. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure people were teasing me behind my back too, knowing I couldn't understand them. I mean, I know French _now_, but…"

She trailed off, apparently unable to make herself complete the thought.

"...but you still couldn't help but worry it would be the same here?" Marinette finished, hoping it was okay for her to talk now.

Vera answered with a slow, miserable nod. "I was certain people were going to hate me. Certain no one would want to be around me, and that this was going to be the worst school yet..."

Vera shuddered, her entire body quivering like a leaf in the wind.

"…and then I was akumatized." she whispered. "I barely even knew what an akuma _was_. I'd seen a few news articles about what was going on in Paris, but I'd only been here for a day, and wow, isn't that something? It took less than 24 hours of my being here for a supervillain to decide I'd make a good minion for him. What does that say about me…?"

If someone had told Marinette a week ago that she'd actually be sympathizing with this girl, she'd have thought them either crazy, or utterly under her sway. Here though, in this moment, she couldn't even imagine doing otherwise.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that, Vera." Marinette said. "Some of the nicest people I know have been akumatized. Hawkmoth uses people no matter what they're normally like."

"But I'm the one he decided to use for _months_." Vera pointed out, her expression somehow managing to fall even further. "And now that he's finally not, it's too late — if I had any chance of making friends here before, they're completely gone now. All anybody knows me as is the girl who's been brainwashing them for over half a year. Not to mention I have no idea how to do any of my schoolwork, because I literally can't remember anything we've done so far. Not that I was apparently even _here_ for most of it… for once, I think I'm actually looking forward to the next time I have to move..."

Marinette tentatively reached over and placed a hand on Vera's back, leaving it there when the other girl didn't pull away. "Vera... have you talked to your parents about this?" she asked.

Vera let out a choked, utterly humorless laugh. "What parents? The ones who are out from morning to night? Who I might see one of every other day, if I'm lucky? Who didn't even notice that I've been a _completely different person_ since we moved here?!"

The furious words echoed around the room, reverberating in Marinette's ears. After a moment, Vera slumped, her anger seeming to drain away as fast as it had come.

"...I know that's not fair..." she said, voice again so soft and low that Marinette could barely hear it. "My whole thing was making people believe me, after all... why would they notice anything was wrong if I told them I was fine? Why would they question it if I told them I wanted them to call me... _that name..._ from now on? It's not their fault... but it…"

Vera finally turned to fully face Marinette, tears rapidly pooling at the corners of her eyes.

"-it still hurts, it hurts so MUCH-!"

With that, Vera collapsed forward into Marinette's side, crying and bawling her heart out onto the shoulder of Marinette's jacket sleeve. Marinette slowly wrapped her arms around Vera as the other girl clung to her like the last life preserver in a shipwreck, wondering if there was anything she could possibly do to fix this.

* * *

"You're sure you're okay with me coming here to study…?" Vera asked, staring up apprehensively at the entrance to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery.

"I wouldn't have invited you if I wasn't." Marinette replied, standing next to her. "Besides, you've got a lot to catch up on, right?"

Vera winced. "Yeah... six months' worth of schoolwork that I don't remember anything about..."

After Vera's breakdown a couple of days ago, Marinette had been making an effort to try and get to know the girl behind the smirking, akumatized veneer she'd known up until now. Vera was still rather nervous to be around her, or in fact seemingly anyone at all, but Marinette was slowly chipping away at the walls the girl had built around herself, gradually reintroducing her to the social interaction she'd been deliberately avoiding out of fear. Today was the latest step in that plan.

"Then we'd better not waste any time." Marinette said, smiling encouragingly. "Come on, let's go inside."

Marinette led the way through the bakery's front door, and Vera followed after, near-palpable waves of anxiety pouring off of her as she did. After briefly introducing Vera to her parents, who promised to bring up snacks for them in a little while, Marinette led the other girl up two flights of stairs and into the main living space.

Vera immediately froze upon seeing Alya and Nino sitting on the nearby couch, both of whom turned upon hearing the door open and smiled at her. Marinette found herself almost equally stunned however, as a certain blonde-haired model was unexpectedly present as well, sitting cross-legged on the rug just in front of said couch.

"A-Adrien?" Marinette stuttered. "What you are- I mean, what are you- how did you get-"

Alya cut her off with a laugh. "Turns out model boy here thought he should probably do some studying too. I figured you wouldn't mind too much if Nino and I invited him along."

She waggled her eyebrows at Marinette as Adrien sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Um, I can leave if it's too much trouble." he offered.

"N-no!" Marinette squawked, waving her hands back and forth so fast they became a blur. "Of course you can stay! I-"

Suddenly remembering why she'd set this up to begin with, Marinette turned to face Vera again, who had perhaps unconsciously started stepping back towards the door.

"I mean- if that's okay with you, Vera." she finished. "Sorry about the surprise… if you're not comfortable with it, we can work something else out."

Vera looked over at Alya and Nino, the same scared, almost cornered expression she'd been wearing most of the week plastered across her face. "I- I'm-"

"Hey there, no need to panic." Alya said with a small grin. "We're not gonna bite."

"Marinette just thought that maybe we'd like to get to know the real you." Nino followed up. "She says you're actually pretty cool, so, we decided to take her up on that."

Adrien smiled. "I think I'd like to get to know the real you too, Vera. If you're alright with it, that is."

Marinette waited as Vera's eyes darted from person to person, the whirling thoughts within her skull practically audible. For nearly ten straight seconds, it seemed as though the Italian girl was about to bolt... but eventually, hesitantly, she nodded.

"Alright!" Alya cheered, beckoning them over. "Come on then you two, get over here."

Marinette did so, walking forward to join her friends as Vera timidly followed behind her. Since there was only enough actual seating available for three or so people, Marinette nervously lowered herself onto the rug next to Adrien, while Alya and Nino scooted to the left to make room for Vera on the couch.

"So, where should we start then?" Alya asked once everyone was settled, picking up a couple of papers from the mess already spread over the coffee table. "English, maybe?"

"English sounds good to me." Nino said, leaning back against the couch cushions. "I swear they crammed extra stuff into the language just to make it harder to understand. Lucky we've got Mister Multilingual here to help us."

He leaned over and nudged Adrien, who let out a small, embarrassed laugh.

"I'm up for that." Marinette said, looking over at Vera. "How about you?"

"M-me?" Vera stuttered.

Marinette nodded. "You're part of this group too. Are you okay starting with English?"

"...oh, um..." Vera mumbled, fidgeting slightly and looking down at her lap. "That's... probably one of the only subjects I _don't_ need help on, actually..."

"Really?" Marinette asked, surprised.

Vera nodded, clutching at her upper arm. "I know how to speak, write, and read English pretty well already... along with Italian, German, French, Greek, and a bit of Cantonese."

Four separate pairs of eyes widened upon hearing that.

"Wait a second, SIX languages?" Alya said in minor shock. "That's even more than you know, isn't it?" she asked, turning towards Adrien.

"Yeah, and I've been being privately tutored since I was three years old." Adrien added, seeming rather impressed himself. "Where did you learn all those Vera?"

"It's... kind of a necessity when you're constantly moving countries to quickly pick up the local language." Vera answered. "I'm not completely fluent in all of them, but I know enough to hold a relatively complex conversation in everything besides Cantonese..."

Vera paused, her eyes suddenly widening in horror. "I _swear_ I'm not lying about that! I really do know them, honest, I can prove-!"

"Woah, woah!" Nino interrupted, raising his hands with the palms facing outward. "Chill, dude. We didn't think you were lying."

"Nino's right." Marinette agreed. "That's pretty amazing, Vera."

Their assurances had the desired effect, as while Vera shrunk in on herself a little more than before, her panic seemed to mostly subside. Once the moment appeared to have largely passed, Alya resumed the conversation as though it had never even stopped.

"Well, in any event, you're a lot better off than the rest of us if you already know English… besides him, at least." Alya said, jabbing a thumb at Adrien. "Guess we'll come back to that subject later."

Vera bit her lip, then visibly swallowed and opened her mouth to speak.

"No, it's alright." she said. "I could... help explain it, if you wanted?"

Nino perked up. "Could you? That actually sounds great. Between you and Adrien, maybe you can make this gibberish actually make some sort of sense."

Alya snickered. "Just because you're terrible at the language doesn't mean it doesn't make sense, Nino."

Adrien raised his hand. "Um, speaking as someone who _does_ know English, it... really doesn't. Most of the 'rules' are completely inconsistent since it borrows from so many other languages. Sorry Alya."

Alya glared at Adrien, but couldn't seem to find an appropriate rebuttal to that, and so simply collapsed back into the couch the same way her boyfriend had. She shifted after a moment to give Vera a slightly exasperated look.

"Well in _that case_, then yes, we'd seriously appreciate it Vera. Think you can help us out?"

Marinette watched as the corners of Vera's lips finally lifted into a small, genuine smile, and couldn't help but smile herself.

Yeah… they'd be okay.

* * *

AN: Okay, so this WAS meant to be a oneshot, and I'm actually already working on that alternative version/sequel, but… well, I wrote that conversation with Vera out, and couldn't help but feel it might work better as a direct follow-up for this after all. So, surprise! Oneshot is now a twoshot! Hope I managed to close it out well enough to justify the additional chapter.

By the way, none of the reasons Tikki hypothesized are what Hawkmoth truly intended Liela for. Not entirely, at least. Due to the way I set the first part of this up to be a quickly resolved oneshot, it would have been extremely difficult to introduce the real one here in a way that would make sense. The overarching plan Hawkmoth had in mind is going to be something of a key plot point in the next part of this "series" though, so if you're interested, please do stick around for that. :)

…oh, and Vera as an Italian name means "truth". Because Hawkmoth's sense of irony is, put lightly, _exceedingly_ basic.


End file.
